


Didn’t I Travel the High Road?

by SnowMercury



Series: Another Day In MonsterFalls [3]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Canonical Child Abuse, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2019-10-24 19:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17709989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowMercury/pseuds/SnowMercury
Summary: When Experiment #210 escapes in the middle of the night, Stanford Pines calls for some assistance from his significant other. What he doesn’t realize is exactly how badly he’s messed up this time.(The Ford/OC ship is only a ship in name; it is comphet and not a genuine relationship and their actions are that of close friends, and should be read as such. I’m including it in the tags as that just in case.)(Child abuse tag refers to Ford and Fidd’s canonical treatment of Shifty.)(explanation of how its comphet; david considers himself genderfluid & bi at this time but later realizes hes agender & a lesbian)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally this was going to be a one-shot, but then I realized..... it was becoming a Lot Longer ? so here’s the first chapter; probably won’t be many.  
> title is lyrics from Pantsuit Sasquatch by Molly Lewis

Some actions, once taken, can never be undone. They can never be forgiven or made up for, and this is something we must confront in our life.

For a Freshwater Siren, having the opportunity to teach someone means so much more than who they were born to- younger sirens may even take on physical aspects of their Teachers, thanks to the way their magic works. They place a lot of importance on who one chooses to teach them; this is who they’re trusting to tell them the truth and to guide them to be a better person. The role of a Teacher is an esteemed one with a lot of responsibilities, responsibilities that not every Siren may want to take on. This high importance, however, means that many sirens do see it as an esteemed job, so if a child is ever not wanted, there is no shortage of Teachers who would be willing to take them in. 

This culture of connection and teaching leads to a lot of checks over time. It also leads to an intense value; that to hurt someone who is innocent, someone who trusts you completely, is to completely take advantage of them and an action that can never be undone. It is an action that warrants being completely excluded from the community, including an intense ceremony that removes all magic from the fellow Siren.

Stanford Pines was not aware of this. He was also not aware that Shifty, the shape shifter that he kept in a cage day in and day out, was sentient. He had observed how this creature had the ability to display emotion, had the ability to speak and ask questions and to want- but had not connected the dots that maybe, just _maybe_ , this creature shouldn’t be kept in a cage and isolated from all contact besides him and Fidds. 

It was these factors that led him to believe that calling one of his friends at three in the morning upon discovering Shifty was missing was a good idea. It was these factors that led him to completely neglect that he had forgotten to introduce this particular friend- er, he supposed they _were_  dating, but something felt off about saying that somehow, and it hadn’t been for long- to Shifty at all. 

“So what’s the damage, Ford? Where’s the fire?”

The forest was dark, and David blinked in the darkness, pupils wide. He had no trouble seeing in the dark, but he knew Ford did. Not all creatures had night vision, and humans were unfortunately not included in that. Well, most weren’t. Ford looks up from his phone, seeming surprised that David has arrived so soon, and nods.

”Yes, well. It seems one of my experiments has escaped, and this one is one of the rather more.... Dangerous ones. It can turn into anybody that it sees and mimic them quite well. I- oh! Here, put this mask on, first.” He holds out a paper hospital mask, having been wearing one himself. David can understand the benefits of a mask in front of a creature that can turn into anything it sees, and starts to try to put it on. It doesn’t quite cover more than his nose and a quarter of his mouth due to his muzzle, and his fins start to hurt after a moment, so he grimaces. 

Ford doesn’t seem to react for a moment, before jolting upright with a realization. “Oh. Oh! Yes, that would be an issue, I can- here, use my scarf.” He reaches up and undoes the black scarf, passing it over to David, who wraps it around his mouth and lets the mask just hang loose from one of his horns. 

“Can you see my face?”

”No. Wait- do you think it would be able to mimic those lights you do sometimes? I wonder, if he could learn those if he were in a Freshwater Siren form, or if the curse would still affect him-“

”Wait, I’m curious.” David interrupts, squinting at Ford. “Exactly how smart is this creature? You got their permission to study them, like you did me, right?” It didn’t seem to add up. If this creature was smart enough to possibly learn a language, and was staying with Ford by choice, why would Ford describe them as having escaped?

Here Ford pauses, seeming to think. “Well, he’s said a few words- much like a parrot does, I believe, and has shown the ability to express emotions by turning into a dog or a sea urchin! I found him as an egg in the forest, he’s been staying in the Bunker- as a precaution, of course. Who knows what havoc it could wreak if it escaped. Which is why we need to find him, and soon!”

A sinking feeling seemed to be growing in David’s stomach, his expression currently unreadable as he regarded Ford. David didn’t want to believe what he was hearing about the treatment of the shape shifter. “Does he have a name?”

Ford nods. “He answers to Shifty. Fidds was against giving him a name, something about getting too attached, and I see his point now. We should come up with a code word, in case he tries to mimic one of us- it could be extremely dangerous, you never know with some of these experiments, they can be extremely dangerous and this one... Has the potential to destroy the town with the right form.”

David felt his tail go even more still, hands and feet growing cold and numb. He swallows once, eyes widening almost imperceptibly. Did Ford not understand how he sounded? “How long have you had him?”

”A few months! Its showing surprising ability to adapt to its environment, which is why I have to stress we need to find it-“

”Ford,” David interrupts, barely recognizing his own voice at the moment, “He is not just an experiment. He’s-“

”Extremely dangerous, as I’ve said! We have to start looking, immediately- I have a spare tranquilizer gun if you’d rather not use your lights, although I’m not sure if this will work, I hadn’t had time to test it yet-“

”Stanford Pines.” David sternly says, tail twitching and fins outstretched as he speaks, aghast. The way Ford kept describing this creature, this being- it wasn’t right, and he had absolutely no idea. Absolutely no thought or consideration of it. Ford paused, finally looking over to David and realizing just how upset the siren had gotten, and instinctively glanced to David’s claws, David’s arms held down at his side. Something else was tilted even further off the edge towards a breaking point in David’s mind at that, and his frown grew. “The way you’ve been describing Shifty is extremely.... Unjust and unfair. Do you even....”

David took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment, before letting it out. His frown doesn’t go away, but some of the tenseness to his posture leaves. “You didn’t even realize, did you. That he- that Shifty is sentient? That the way you’ve been treating this _baby_  is going to stick with him, for the rest of the life? This is the basis for who he’s going to be?”

Ford’s eyes widen, and David assumes his mouth is hanging open from the way his mask moves. Ford’s hands drop to his side, and for a second he seems at a loss for words, completely- like he’s just a puppet, hanging from a very long pair of strings as he stands there. “That..... That can’t be true, he- it- if that’s true, then I’ve- oh no.”

A sardonic laugh escaped David’s mouth as he rips the scarf off, throwing it to the ground. His fins are wide, glowing with a bright, unsettlingly deep purple, and his pupils slim into slits. “You’ve been treating a _child_  like an experiment, were willing to-  to shoot a tranquilizer at him, not even knowing what it would do! You’ve been running experiments on him like some kind of lab mouse, I- we’re done. I’m helping you find him, and then we’re _done_.” David snarls these words, voice dripping with an emotion Ford had never heard from him before. Something seems to click in Ford, and he hunches over slightly, nodding once. He hadn’t even realized, hadn’t thought.... 

“He.... He likes beans...”

David nods brusquely, turning towards the tree and then up at the branch that would open the bunker, pausing. Something akin to fear flashes across his face, his tail wrapping momentarily around one of his legs as he starts to look back to Ford, but stops halfway. Hesitant, he forces himself to look back to the tree, starting to climb it towards the branch overhead. Ford hesitates, watching David climb the tree. 

Once the bunker is open and the two have entered it, David strides confidently forward, stopping in the supplies room to grab a can of beans off of one of the shelves. “These the right ones?”

Ford nods. He doesn’t trust his voice at this moment, but once he realizes David wasn’t even looking at him, he speaks up. “Yes. Those are what he’s been eating. That and orange juice.” The quiet seems prickly. Ford thinks that he’s never heard David so closed off or quiet; he’s always had something to say, and even when they’ve argued in the past, he was never so stilted, refusing to even look at him. He opens his mouth to say something once, then decides against it- what would he even say?

David stares at the beans for a few moments, before taking a deep breath and turning to look at Ford for once, holding the can in his hands. He notices Ford is still wearing the mask.

“Do you know why I can’t forgive you for this?”

Ford blinks at the question, feeling some level of relief and uneasiness alike in his gut.

”I think... I think I do.”

”When we find Shifty, I want to adopt him.”

David doesn’t hesitate before he speaks after Ford has, his eyes meeting Ford’s head on like the headlights of a train. Constant, daring him to oppose him. 

Ford supposes this is probably the best course for Shifty. Certainly, Ford wasn’t prepared to take care of a child, and sometimes.... The things he heard Bill mention sounded unsafe for a child, in the multiverse. Even if Shifty was able to turn into anything, that didn’t keep him from being a child. So, he nods. There were no need for adoption papers; only his permission. Ford hadn’t thought to find papers of any sort for Shifty.

David seems to soften, a small frown taking it’s place on his muzzle as he looks at Ford, searching his face for something. “You..... You genuinely didn’t know, did you?”

Ford is the first to look away this time. “Of course I didn’t. If I had, then how I treated him.... Would have been quite different.”

”Did you never think to look? To check for sentience?”

”I had no clue, none at all.”

”And why was that?”

Ford frowns at this, his breath stilling for a moment. He lifts up a hand and takes off his mask, looking at it, remembering how he always wore it when seeing Shifty, never considering otherwise. How he took for granted that Shifty was smart enough to mimic anybody- but not smart enough to be more than a pet, or an experiment. A malicious lab rat- who had ever heard of that.

”Looking over how I acted, how Shifty acted, I.....” The frown deepens. “...Have no idea. I should have realized, before this. In hindsight, the signs are all there. I just... didn’t connect the dots, I suppose.”

 “You _didn’t connect the dots_ ,” David scoffs, eyes watering, “and a _child_  has to grow up with what you’ve done to him because of that. I- I don’t know what to think of you right now, Stanford. Don’t think I didn’t see the way you looked at my claws earlier, like you were afraid I’d _hurt_  you. Is that what you think of me?” David looks away again. “Is that why Shifty had to grow up in a cage? Because of what he had the potential to be?”

Ford stays silent, not knowing what to say to fix the situation, feeling like saying anything might make it worse. 

“You always assume the worst in others, Ford. Stanford. And I understood it, to a point. It hurts to open up. It hurts to be betrayed. But this, he’s a _child_. It doesn’t matter that you’re afraid, that you don’t know what he could be- you can _teach_ him right and wrong! Just about anything in this world can kill you, Stanford, are you going to try to cage all of that too?”

David’s fins flared once again, as he moved towards the entrance to the lab, glancing back to Ford once. 

“Were you going to try to cage me?”

”No, never.” Ford finds his voice quickly for that one. 

David pauses, having been about to enter the lab, and turns back to Ford, searching his face once again. Ford thinks back to what Bill brought up about David, that he had to be careful around the Siren, that it was odd they were even friends. That Sirens were named sirens for a reason, that the old myths weren’t exactly false. But now, looking at David’s expression, Ford can’t help but feel a wriggle of doubt at Bill’s words. 

David finally nods, and enters the lab. Ford follows.

 

——————————————————————

 

They’re both sitting on the floor near the cage, can of beans cracked open, waiting for Shifty. David purposefully looks anywhere but the cage, feeling a deep sense of revulsion whenever he sees it, almost vomiting. He feels a deep desire to destroy it, this symbol, this thing that was used to cage a child. David isn’t sure how big Shifty is, but certainly he can’t be small enough for this cage to work as an entire room. He notices a book, too, on the desk. It has a series of bookmarks sticking out of it.

“What are the bookmarked pages?”

Ford looks over, following David’s gaze to the book. Ah. “The creatures I was going to show Shifty. The ones that weren’t bookmarked, I’d..... Deemed too dangerous.” 

David thinks for a moment, looking at the book. “Fish on land dangerous, or cone snail dangerous?” 

“What?”

”Dangerous to himself, or to others?”

”Oh.” Ford looks down, taking a deep breath. “For others. But I didn’t show him anything that would hurt himself, either. That was.... I wouldn’t do that.”

”Until today, I would have said you’d never put a child in a cage and treat them like a pet, but here we are.”

Ford flinches, leaning forward to put his face in his hands. “I deserved that.”

”Of course you did,” David looked to Ford, coldly regarding him, “It’s the truth. I know you didn’t think to even look for sentience, but.... That’s an excuse. It doesn’t change what you did, or how Shifty is going to be affected by this.”

”I know. How- how can I ever fix this?”

”This isn’t something you can fix. But..... And this is _only_  because you had no clue whatsoever, I may be willing to bring Shifty over to play, _supervised_  and _if he wants to_. Some beings imprint, and in that case, he may even have to stay with you. But, because habits are hard to break, I don’t trust you alone with him.” 

Ford nodded, his throat dry. He is about to speak, when the sharp tap of claws on the floor is heard. A glance over at David shows he isn’t moving, but looking at the entrance to the room, enraptured. Ford looks back as well, blinking in surprise at the sight. A small cheetah cub is walking into the room, looking towards both of them warily. Shifty seems to believe that he shouldn’t be out of the cage, and approaches slowly, watching them both for the first sign of movement. 

Neither of them move as Shifty moves forward to the can and shifts back into his original form, quickly starting to eat. David watches, noticing that Shifty has no qualms about eating directly out of the can- general disregard or, knowing what he knows about how Shifty was brought up, not being exposed to other ways of cooking? 

Ford instinctively reaches up to adjust his mask, but stops himself upon remembering he isn’t even wearing it, anymore. 

Shifty finishes the beans, and then looks up to the two others in the room, pausing. Then he looks directly to David.

“Who are you?” 

David grins, the first time he’s smiled all night. His fins glow a bit of a sky blue color as he lifts one hand in a wave. 

“I’m David! I’m.... I was a friend of your dad’s.”

”’Dad’?”

David pauses, before gesturing to Ford. “Stanford here. Although, he doesn’t quite deserve the full meaning of the word. See, I have some issues with how he was raising you. Namely, the cage.”

Shifty stills, and starts to squish himself back down behind the can of beans. He doesn’t speak, but seems obviously uncomfortable at the mention of the cage. 

“I think the cage is a really bad idea and that you should never be put in it again.”

There is a pause, where Shifty doesn’t seem to realize what was said. Then he lifts up his head, curious as he looks between David and Ford.

Ford realizes he should probably say something, too. 

“Shifty, I..... I’ve recently realized a few things about my treatment of you. And I was going about it all wrong. You are not a pet, or just an experiment, and I regret brushing off your questions as mimicry. It was wrong of me.” 

Shifty blinks, looking to Ford. 

“I should have never treated you like that, and I apologize, Shifty. David here is- was a friend of mine, but I trust him completely with knowing how to raise you. I think that he would be a much better parent to you than I was, and wanted to ask.... If you would like to go with him.”

Shifty opted not to answer, but to look between the two again. He wasn’t particularly expressive, but something in his expression seemed conflicted. David hesitated, looked to Ford, and then spoke up.

”Stanford, would it be alright if, instead of leaving right away if he does want to come with me, we have... A sleepover here, in the Bunker? So he has a chance to get to know me first, and so this isn’t some huge change that feels completely out of his control.”

”’Sleepover’?” Shifty blinks up at David, curious. David turns back to Shifty with a small smile.

“All three of us, staying in the Bunker for a bit. You did just get a chance to explore the rest of it; I’m sure there’s some parts of it you’re excited to talk about, or want to learn more about. Then we could get some blankets and sleep for a bit, and then you can let us know if you’ve made a decision in the morning.”

Slowly, Shifty nods.

“Would you- do you want me to call Fidds down here as well, Shifty?” Ford’s voice is tentative.

Shifty turns to Ford, and then shakes his head no. David watches this, and a little bit of the deep purple in his fins comes back as he remembers what Ford said earlier, about how Fidds treated Shifty. Like he didn’t even deserve a name. David closes his eyes for a moment, and takes a deep breath, calming himself down.

Shifty hesitantly moves away from the can of beans, crawling slowly towards the two. He seems to be considering carefully where to put his legs, and stopping to look up at Ford and David occasionally, in that order. He stops between them, where he curls up and slowly morphs into a small dog, looking up at both of them. 

David looks to Ford, wondering what Shifty is expressing by that, and Ford smiles slightly. 

“I’m glad you’re happy, Shifty. I hope you.... I hope you will be for the foreseeable future.” 

David nodded, looking to Shifty again. He silently made a pledge, to make sure this kid had a much better childhood than the one he’d been having. Nobody deserved the way he had been treated. Nobody.


	2. Chapter 2

As children are wont to do, Shifty was soon up and moving around, looking around the room at angles he hadn’t been able to see from his cage. Unafraid of being caught and imprisoned again, he wasn’t trying to hide his curiosity now, either, although he had been much more expressive visually than verbally. Even within the room, there were moments where he stopped at an item he wasn’t quite sure what it was used for and just tilted his head in whatever form he was in. Soon after, either Ford was answering the unspoken question or David had poked Ford to get him out of his head. 

It was a delicate situation, to see someone David had considered a friend closing in on himself like that. It wasn’t how the Ford he first met would react. That Ford would have been arguing back after latching on to a defense; David was rather glad he hadn’t started trying to defend his actions, but usually he would have been talking about something. He supposed it was rather late for Ford, and he did seem rather tired. Maybe that accounted for this change in countenance. Hopefully it was that Ford was thinking of ways to catch Shifty up on what he was supposed to have learned by now, or ways to make sure he never mistakes a sentient creature for a pet again.

 

When Shifty was about to leave the room (shown by pausing near the door and looking back to David and Ford), the two got up to follow- and David noticed Ford stumble once, lifting one hand to his head as if he had suddenly gotten a headache, rubbing his eyes. David looked over, fins perking slightly as he watches Ford take a deep breath. Rather than ask if Ford is okay, David just waits.

After a few seconds, Ford looks up. There seems to be a slight reddish mark under his right eye, already smeared, and David’s fins droop slightly. 

“You’ve got something. Under your eye.”

”Hm? Oh, it’s- I’m fine, it’s nothing.” Ford lifts one hand up to his eye, wiping away what was left of the reddish smear. “New eyedrops, working on the patent. It’s for Summerween.” 

David thinks that maybe it isn’t makeup. But he doesn’t want to alarm Shifty, and resolves to bring it up later when Shifty is asleep. The two walk out of the room, following Shifty down a corridor- and to a room full of tubes. Shifty stills upon seeing them, slowly turning into something small and pointy. His eyes are still wide as he looks to Ford. Ford, who looks like he’s been dragged behind a car for a mile with how he’s walking. Ford looks to the tubes, then to Shifty, and something seems to occur to him and his eyebrows draw together.

”Did F ever take you here, Shifty?”

A shake no.

”I’m.... I’m glad for that, at least. These are cryogenic freezing tubes. We had them made in case of the apocalypse, as part of how the air conditioning works, and... Unfortunately, one of their purposes is to freeze creatures we deemed too dangerous.” 

Shifty goes rather still at that. David moves forward, but stops, and turns to look at the tubes again. There is a moment where he judges the size of each tube, the logistics of it, and then he turns away, looking to Shifty again. 

“Shifty, would you be more comfortable in a different room?” 

 It is quite odd to see a sea urchin with a wagging dog tail. But, it got the message across. 

Moving forward to block Shifty’s view of the cryogenic containers, David flares his fins to further obscure the view.

”Take your time, Shifty, but do you want someone to carry you out of the room or to walk out on your own?”

Silently, somehow, the sea urchin starts rolling out of the room. Ford follows, looking down and stepping gingerly in case Shifty stops suddenly, and David leaves the room last. He takes one more glance at the tubes, lit up with a light sky blue. 

“Looks can be decieving.” He mutters this under his breath, taking one last deep breath in the cold room before leaving, not even sparing a glance to the camera set up above. One can never escape the feeling of being watched in Gravity Falls, anyways.

 

——————————————————————————

 

Next was a brief tour led by Shifty around the rest of the bunker and a hide and seek game cut short when David and Ford realized that even with how few things are around, finding Shifty turns out to be a task meant for those who play hide and seek professionally, not recreationally. (He was posing as an old can of coffee grounds with a little boy on the side and a yellow background.) They set up the bed for Shifty to sleep on and used a few spare blankets and pillows to set up a temporary bed on the floor.

As a compromise, David brought up that they could give charades a try. It was a relatively more stationary game than hide and seek, and with the added rule that they couldn’t actually turn into or use their Song to make their concept appear, it was shaping up to be a good game. Since none of them had played charades before, that was what they assumed, anyways. 

“Another point to Shifty! That’s a dolphin!”

David laughed, fins glowing a vibrant blue as he watched Shifty jump up and down in excitement, shifting into a ferret and chasing his tail in joy. Ford seems to smile, although David notice his eyes seem to be unfocused. When David checks the clock, he notices that its almost five. So David turns to Shifty with a smile, clapping his hands together. 

“Congrats, Shifty! I think that makes you the winner!”

Shifty preens under the attention, turning into a dog whose tail is wagging so quickly he can barely even sit. 

“I think we should all probably start getting for bed now, though. Ford, anything I- Stanford, I mean, not Ford- should know about Shifty’s bedtime routine? Any special toothbrush or...?”

 Ford doesn’t react for a moment, seemingly still lost in his mind. There’s a moment where he frowns, as though a bad thought has passed through his head, one he doesn’t want there. David starts to frown, concerned.

”Stanford?” David reaches out with one hand, but stops the moment Ford seems to jump and look at him in fear for a split second before composing himself. David pulls his hand back, holding it to his chest and trying to appear nonthreatening- had yelling at Ford earlier messed him up this much? This wasn’t what he wanted, not at all. If only he had a hoodie instead of just a short-sleeved sweater on, the siren reckoned he could have hid his horns and fins as well to make himself look smaller.

”Are you alright?”

Stanford looks conflicted, like there’s a war in his mind. Shifty looks up, watching the interactions between them both, which David notes with a glance.

After a moment, Ford stands up, holding both his hands up for a moment like he doesn’t know what to do with them. 

“I-I need just a moment. I’ll be right back.”

With that, he leaves the room. With that, Shifty looks back to David in confusion. With that, David gestures to the bed, figuring that if there was something certain that had to be done for Shifty’s bedtime, he could ask Ford about it.

”Try to get some sleep for now, okay Shifty? I’m going to go see what’s going on with Ford, and then we’ll both be back, okay?”

Shifty nodded, jumping onto the bed and curling up in his own form. David gets up and is about to leave before he hears a voice say “Good night.”

Smiling, David looks back. “Good night to you too, Shifty.” With that, he leaves the room to go find Ford.


	3. Chapter 3

Ford lifted his hands up to his face, sitting at the monitor. Up on the screen in front of him was the cryogenic tubes, humming along like they usually did. Something wriggled in his gut, squirming its way up his throat, before he swallowed the feeling down. If he had been wrong about this, what- what else could he be wrong about? What else had he done so irreparably wrong without even noticing? Were there other mistakes of his, rearing back like a rattlesnake ready to bite him when he had earmuffs on? 

 

He felt, under his right eye, the slow trickle of blood once again. It- The blood wasn’t an issue, it was fine. A small price to pay for access to infinite knowledge. Bill had assured him it wasn’t permanent, and he trusted that. Bill hadn’t….. Well, it was understandable, the times he had led him astray. It was completely fine. There were no issues here, after all. 

 

How had he missed it though? The complete foundation of sentience within a small creature, how had he just ignored it, never even considered? He heard a voice and his mind went to  _ parrots _ immediately, despite the large number of other sentient supernatural creatures he had encountered. How absurd, in retrospect.

 

He leaned forward, placing his hands on the monitor desk in front of him, arms trembling as he steadied himself. He’d only missed sleep for three nights, this wasn’t- he shouldn’t be reacting like this. Ford snorted bitterly; he knew just how Bill would react. Calling him weak for not lasting longer, working on the portal more. It was true, the limitations of his frail human body were ones he knew all too well and loathed just as much. More coffee was just what he needed, of course. 

 

In the fugue state he’d fostered in himself from sleep deprivation, he almost didn’t hear the sound of the hatch opening into the trap room. A few moments passed and he heard a loud squawk, much like that of a strangled turkey but strangely melodious. It didn’t register until David leaped into the room, tumbling forward onto the ground, that he may have been trying to follow him here.

 

There was a long moment, a pause. Ford knew what was coming; he expected just as much. A stern lecture, probably some questions about Shifty’s habits, how Ford was going to prevent himself from screwing up this badly ever again. The standard words in this situation. A small part of Ford’s brain started ringing with alarms, and it took him a second to realize why- Shifty wasn’t with David. Shifty was still back in the entry room for the Bunker.

 

It wasn’t safe- not for him to be there! Not with the  _ Schmez _ dispensers Ford had in the cabinet- what if Shifty found them and associated small oblong shapes with candy and accidentally ate too many gummy vitamins later on? That’d be just another disaster he caused! 

 

Before he could speak up, though, David had stood up, and cracked a grin. 

“Lucky that that room isn’t finished, or I would’ve been squished! Why did you think it’d be a good idea to put a  _ crushing  _ room in your  _ science lab _ ? Just hoping you never have to carry anything that’s fragile, huh?”

 

Ford hesitated. And then he spoke.

 

———————————————————

 

If there was one thing David was good at, it was not being a detective. When he wanted to know something, generally he had to either know it already or ask somebody who was very willing to share that information with him. He’d heard Ford in the Control room while Shifty was still settling for bed. He’d heard him moving around, muttering to himself. And David knew, just from Ford’s appearance, that he was blaming himself for this. Which was fair, of course, but something else was going on, something that Ford wasn’t just sharing. Something that he seemed to want to keep secret.

 

And, if the blood on his face was any indication, it was something David had heard of before. But hopefully it wasn’t. Hopefully he had just forgotten to eat citrus and was dealing with an unfortunate Vitamin C deficiency. That would be fixable- possibly? Was it possible to cure scurvy after bleeding started? David wasn’t sure, but that also wasn’t the topic at the hand he realized.

 

Either way, something else was going on. And if this had the possibility to come back and hurt Shifty, David wanted to know about it. 

 

And Ford spoke. “Well, everything fragile was supposed to be down here already. I’ve been working on a fail safe, although…” He looks to the monitor, hands gesturing emphatically. “I don’t think Fidds and I will be using this Bunker for much longer. Too much time has been used here, rather than at our primary project, and we’re starting to fall behind. It’s starting to become a distraction.”

 

David nodded, wanting to ask outright about the project, but figuring his health was more important to know about at the moment. “Ford, you said earlier that your eye was fine. I don’t know if that’s true. Tell me, have….” How to phrase this? How did you even ask? “Have you explored any caves lately?” 

 

Ford turns away, looking up at the monitor screen once again. 

“Yes. I found one that had some interesting rock creatures in it, with Fidds.”

 

“Was there anything on the cave walls?”

 

There is a moment’s silence. And then: “No. Nothing besides guano.”

 

“No writing?”  _ Or drawings of triangles on the walls,  _ he doesn’t add.

 

“None, although there were some interesting shapes on there. Almost like geometry, one could say.”

 

Ford stands up straight, still looking at the monitor. David looks there too, catching a look at his reflection- and his breath gets stuck in his throat, sharp as if he had swallowed a knife. 

 

“Almost like a circle.”

 

There is a wide grin on Ford’s face. 

 

“Almost like a triangle.”

 

There is yellow in his eyes. 

 

“With a hat, an eye, and a bowtie, of course.”

 

David finds his voice again, fins pinned down flat against his throat. 

“Eloo.” 

 

Ford turns around snappily, holding both arms out while striking a pose, one leg forward. “In the flesh! Wow, you catch on  _ fast _ , music note! Took you what, two minutes to say what everybody knows you’re thinking! Big, bad, scary Bill Cipher is here; ugh, but wow does this place stink! Finally found my little  _ pet _ project, though, huh?”

 

David takes a step back, eyes wide as he stares at Ford, mind sprinting like a horse. There was no way this was safe for Ford, no way this was safe for Shifty, not if  _ he _ was back. Not if  _ he _ was taking an interest in Gravity Falls yet again. 

 

“What, cat got your tongue? I could arrange that! Better yet, Sixer here could; he’s my  _ friend _ now, y’know! We made a deal and shook on it and everything!”

 

_ Ford _ was willingly working with Eloo? Willingly helping that apocalyptic demon? David’s fins flared at the thought, his tail lashing behind him as he snarled. 

“Prove it.”

 

Bill shrugged. “Well, if you want me to!” He lifted both hands up, shooting double finger-guns at David, before his entire body seemed to sag for a moment. The marionette with cut strings. David watched, looking carefully to Ford’s eyes, noticing the increase in blood under his right eye. He lifted his head, expression apologetic and hands raised in the universal ‘calm down’ signal- and David had seen enough. A deep rattle grew in his throat as he stared down Ford, backing up into the trap room, leaning so far back that his own fins were squished against the metal wall of blocks behind him. 

 

“David, I was going to tell you. I swear-“

 

“You swear what! What can you say that makes it okay for you to have summoned a  _ demon _ like  _ him _ ?”

 

Ford hesitated, looking more confused than apologetic now. “He isn’t a demon. No, he’s a  _ Muse _ , he’s been-“

 

“-Using you to try to end the world. Let me out of here right now, Stanford.”

 

Ford looked even more confused, but reached out and pressed the button that deactivated the trap room on the monitor, still looking like he wanted to reach out and talk to David. Still looking extremely, extremely tired, every move sluggish. 

 

“He isn’t like that. He’s going to help me bring about new revolutions to scientific discovery! New worlds, new universes, new dimensions- all for humankind to explore.”

 

David simply hissed, stumbling back into the room, not turning his back on Ford until he hit the hatch. Grasping behind him for the handle and turning it open, there was a moment where he stood there, regarding Ford. A moment full of regret- he didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to abandon Ford with a demon. And then he turned and dived into the tunnel, yelling as he sprung forward. 

 

“Shifty, we’re playing hide and seek now- go  _ hi- _ “

 

A hand grabbed his tail, trying to pull him back into the trap room. “Leaving so soon, Note? I think we’ve got unfinished business to deal with! And you know what they say about unfinished business!”

 

David pulled forward, kicking behind him and managing to slide forward into the entry room, falling onto the ground and turning back towards the tunnel, snarling. Bill was grinning down at him, a snarl on his face rivaling that of David’s own. He stood over David, holding something behind his back he must have grabbed while David was still turning over to face him. The glint of metal was apparent in the low light. 

 

“Sometimes, you just have to  _ bury the hatchet _ .” 

 

Bill lifted up his weapon. David felt frozen, looking at the face of Stanford Pines, tainted by the yellow eyes and wide, wide grin he had never seen on that face before. He couldn’t harm Ford, not really. 

 

And that was when it happened.

  
  



	4. Chapter 4

The sound of a cot being thrown across a room is not an entirely unique one. People may not experience it as often, but the sound of a mattress or couch being thrown are relatively similar but exceedingly different unlike what one may think. The sound of such a thing as a cot hitting someone in the face, however, is not as common as a mattress or couch, simply because of the weight. It can be most closely described as a whoomph-crunch, a crunch-whoomph, or a whoo-crunch-oomph. The crunch is, naturally, the sound of a person's nose and the wood inside the cot splintering. How strong someone's cartilage is is the defining factor of where the crunch is located in relation to the whoomph. Depending on how fast the item is thrown and how strong the bones of the person being hit are, there may be many other sounds- various crunches, cracks, snaps, or gasps, wheezes, and urks. 

Now that the description of the salad bar of noise options has been exhausted, we should describe this particular sound salad. 

 

There was, of course, the whoomph-crunch. The whistling wheeze as the wind was knocked out of him, that was a sound Bill-Ford made. There was, also, a bonk- his head hitting the wall behind him- and a loud clatter as the ax in his hand was dropped onto the floor. There was the sound of claws scratching the floor as David backed away from him, pushing the remnants of the cot off of himself, and looked at the crumpled, possibly deeply unconscious body of someone he had considered a friend. 

 

The siren stood up, glancing once over to Shifty- who it seemed had briefly transformed into a version of David himself, for lack of another form that had the strength to throw a cot, and was turning back into his original form, trembling. David leaned down, picked up the child, and looked back to Ford, noting the steady rise and fall of his chest. 

It felt like something was crawling in his throat. The full force of the betrayal hit David in this moment, and, despite the constant emotional turmoil had held, this particularly was one that hit hard. The thought that Ford would knowingly work with Bill- with Eloo, as David had only ever been taught to call him- was a thought so horrendous and horrible that it was like the ax had still found it’s way to his chest.

 

There was a choked sob as David turned away again, noting that he couldn’t talk to Fiddleford, either, not that he had particularly wanted to after finding out about the other’s treatment of Shifty. He looked down at the kid, the one he was holding, who had buried his own head into the sweater David had chosen to wear. 

“Shifty, I need to take you out of here. Is there anything you need before we leave?”

Anything, like a comfort object, or particular food, or - anything. 

The small creature shook his head no. David nodded, took one last glance towards Ford, and started towards the exit.

 

He took with him two cans of beans and a blanket to wrap Shifty in on the walk back to David’s home. 

 

It was two nervous, anxious, fearful days before they left Gravity Falls altogether. 

 

It was quite some time before they came back. Enough time for what we, the viewers, knew was coming to happen- partially. There are still some mysteries in this dimension, after all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me through this! a few notes
> 
> -i now know phones wouldnt have existed at the time as we know them now. shush. pretend it was a pager and not a phone
> 
> -ford, in canon, also didnt have the deal with bill until after shifty. i dont care i write my own canon and also this way, instead of it being pretty much entirely ford’s fault he decided to treat a child as he did, it was on bill, who changed ford’s pattern of thinking around shifty, just to make sure that gets across.
> 
> -this fic is kinda a precursor to my blog inspired by wwtd! its @frankensteinsmonsterwasgood on tumblr! its been on a bit of a hiatus but i might be going back and giving it another look soon, since ive finished this fic & some of the precursory information. 
> 
> thanks for reading! i have two other shifty fics in mind- one following canon events, but from shifty’s perspective, and one following a scenario in which david only finds out about shifty after the events of canon, and he and ford go down to the bunker to deal with that situation.


End file.
